The results shown in the previous chapters detail the multiple foci of identification utilized by members of American Outlaws (AO), AO’s influence on identity salience at live games and during gamewatches, and how the supporter group affects members’ consumption experiences. Taken as a whole, AO membership offers a place in society in which members can parade and share identities that are otherwise viewed unfavorably or with indifference within the US sporting landscape. AO provides its members with a sense of community, fostered through social interaction with
likeminded others, and gives members emotional support.
The current chapter details the sense of community experienced by AO members and how it contributes to AO’s role in supporting members’ multiple foci of
identification. The supporter group allows individuals to enjoy common experiences together with similarly identified others, and it serves as a source of camaraderie that transcends US Men’s National Team (USMNT) events.
Sense of Community: Feeling a Connection to AO National Members
The multi-leveled structure of AO membership means that when an individual joins a local chapter, he or she is also a member of the national organization. Inclusion within AO National offers more than just a membership number – it offers members a psychological place within the larger group. One supporter explains, “I think the way we look at it, or at least the way it feels to me, we’re a part of a bigger collective” (SGM Randy). Another notes that AO is “about building a community. It’s about being with
others you have a connection with” (SGM Leroy). Free Beer Movement (FBM) founder Wiersema adds, “What AO and FBM builds is more than just support for the national team; it builds a community; a good time, a place people want to be at” (FN 20110306). AO members enjoy the feeling of being part of a larger social aggregate, feeling a psychological sense of community, and mention it frequently as a positive outcome of membership.
When compared with those not in one’s group, group members will generally show favoritism to individuals within their ingroup (Allport, 1954; Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Hogg & Turner, 1985). This is found among AO National members, even in cases where members had no prior interaction, as members are apt to be welcoming other AO National members and view the group a close-knit collective. This is captured in the following quote:
The American Outlaws is more along the lines of a say, a family, than a
supporters group.… The way it's a family is, I mean, you can go anywhere in the US to all these 69 cities that we have chapters and you can call somebody or, you know, email them or get in touch with their chapter leader, some of the guys from that chapter, and then you can go have a beer with them. …I mean, you can go to any chapter and it’s amazing the network and networking you can do and then the group of friends that you can get out of this, that's the big thing, it’s more like a family. (SGM Hal)
AO members are friendly and trusting with strangers based solely on those individuals’ inclusion within the ingroup. Beyond that, AO supporters feel a sense of duty to other members and take actions that help members to engage with the group, as depicted in this anecdote:
It's like, American Outlaws is like a giant family. When I wanted to go to the convention in Vegas, it was NASCAR weekend and I seriously could not afford to fly [directly] to Vegas, [but I could fly] to LA really cheap, but then I'd have to find a ride. I just went on the American Outlaw's website and contacted the chapter contact for AO LA, and I was like “Hey, I'm coming from [the
Midwest].” They'd never met me, never heard of me, or seen me at a game, they had no connection to me. It's like a giant fraternity. That's all I had to do is say "Hey, I'm from AO, I need a ride." And they gave me a ride.… I figured it was safe. Soccer supporters are generally really cool people. …When I see another… American Outlaws member, I know that if I need something… they're going to help me do it because we all want to help people meet their need for soccer. (SGM Kathy)
The interactions among group members are not isolated to AO or USMNT events. While AO facilitates ingroup contact, these exchanges provide opportunities for
developing deeper friendships. As stated by one member,
I’ve definitely met a lot more people, fans, not just in the [Chicago] area, but all throughout the whole country, and that’s a positive thing to me. So that was definitely the most important thing that happened in joining the American Outlaws. (SGM Allen)
Another member’s comments reinforce this point:
To me, the American Outlaws was the über supporters crew.… You know, we’ve made some, met some amazing people that we wouldn’t have otherwise met had we not been a part of American Outlaws…. People have started to invite us to their own events that have nothing to do with AO, but because we met through AO we’ve become friends. It’s a wonderful thing. AO has really, it’s really broadened our social life. It’s really, really provided a vehicle or mechanism to meet great people that, you know, that we wouldn’t have met otherwise. (SGM Randy)
The quote above notes how relationships formed through interactions with other supporters extend beyond the supporter group. Initial contact may be through AO, but the friendships and further interactions can occur outside the realm of USMNT games. SGM Erik stated, “I make a new friend through American Outlaws at every game that I go to,” and another respondent said AO was invaluable when she moved to a new city:
We moved here when we were older, we weren't in college. Kind of harder to meet people. But when you can find a common ground, like a love of soccer, it was easier for us to make friends and I think that helped draw us in too. We heard about American Outlaws in [our old city], went online, saw that [our new city had] a chapter, went to [the home bar], …and then the rest is history. So it was just easy to make friends by joining American Outlaws. (SGM Wendy)
Another member describes her friendships as stemming from her supporter group interactions that began with an ex-boyfriend:
She got into AO because she was dating a guy and he brought her to watch the games with the group. She’s no longer dating him, but now she’s friends with all these other people who she met at the gamewatches (those are the people she was with at the gamewatch this night). She now is friends with these people and hangs out with them (even outside of AO), describing them as some of her "closest friends." But she doesn't hang out with the other guy (her ex-boyfriend). (FN 20100123)
AO membership affords individuals the opportunity to become part of a larger collective and form friendships with similarly identified others. More than just being part of a group, AO members develop a sense of community with other AO members.
Building on this notion, this chapter will later highlight the ways in which AO members protect their sense of identity by allowing individuals to safely display their social identity and decrease the dissonance and self-doubt that often arise when one’s social identity is seen negatively by others (Cooper, Kelly, & Weaver, 2003). First, however, this study will explore the social interaction with likeminded others that is enabled through AO, particularly at the subgroup level.
Reinforcing Sense of Community through Social Interaction
Supporter group members’ sense of community is fostered through social
interaction among those within the group. For both Sam’s Army (SA) and AO, a driving impetus behind their founding was the desire to connect USMNT fans with each other. As recounted by one SA member,
The number one function [of SA] is to unite all US soccer fans…. Since it originated back in the early 90s, before really anyone was on any sort of
bandwagon here for soccer, let alone the national team, it was just to really bring together any fans that were out there, which were very few back in the early 90s. …[To have a forum] where people could talk with each other and be able to email
with each other. Well there wasn’t email back then, but connect with each other and have a common passion that they could share. …I can only talk soccer when I’m at these games or when I’m talking with Sam’s Army guys because you don’t find many US national team soccer fans out there, so they have this way for everybody to kind of be able to talk together and come together and share a passion. (SGM Lawrence)
SA was the first successful effort to unify American soccer fans, but the group was not able to fulfill all its members’ desire for interaction. Hence AO’s formation was rooted in members’ desire for communication and social interaction, as discussed by AO co- founder Brunken:
It’s just something to bring them together. Some way to communicate that there are more of us out there. So we can, this is where we’re going to watch the game at. It’s like a communication that we help start. It’s not just us that created all this soccer culture around the country. I think we’re just kind of facilitating it. (J. Brunken, personal communication, December 10, 2009)
AO works to enable communication among members, relying heavily on social media tools. Each AO chapter has its own Facebook page, Twitter account, and subdomain on theamericanoutlaws.com (e.g., akron.theamericanoutlaws.com or
milwaukee.theamericanoutlaws.com). AO National and local chapters also have dedicated space on BigSoccer.com, a popular internet message board. The group regularly pushes information to its members through emails and updates to its website. Talking and other interaction within AO allows members to parade and share their identities, particularly that of being a soccer fan.
Soccer’s lower popularity as a spectator sport in the US creates challenges in terms of celebrating and sharing one’s identity as a soccer fan (see section in Chapter 4: “Focus of identification: The sport of soccer”). The social opportunities enabled by AO help overcome that challenge, particularly those available through AO Local: “you’re just able to connect and find somebody that knows soccer and be able to talk to them and do
something with them every week rather than once or twice a year” (SGM Jonathon). Another informant expressed a similar view:
You can call it selfish needs, but it’s more like local needs. There needs to be that kind of dialogue about soccer. Not a lot of great outlets for conversation about soccer in the work place. Most people don’t watch it, it’s just a fact of life so when you get people in your community that care about the same thing together it tends to be a lot of fun. So it’s about getting the local community to interact and to discuss what we love. (SGM Peter)
The localized subgroup serves as an outlet for conversation around televised games. Even for games televised on basic cable, when watching at home is a viable option for fans, being able to talk about the game in an environment of similarly identified others leads AO members to watch with their local AO chapter:
You definitely want to talk about what’s going on, just kind of discuss what’s going on in the game, to be able to cheer and get mad and that kind of stuff. It’s sort of no fun doing that, sitting by yourself in front of a TV at home, it’s a lot better to kind of share that experience with other people so you can celebrate together and commiserate together, that type of thing. I’d rather do it that way than sit at home and watch a game by myself. (SGM Allen)
The same feelings apply for attending the events surrounding live games where members are interacting with the superordinate level of the group:
It’s a time where all these soccer fans can actually just get together, talk, talk about rumors, talk about all this soccer, you know. There’s not that much, there’s not like a sports forum just for soccer, and there’s not, there’s not as much stuff as with football or baseball. These people create their own conversations. (SGM Benjamin)
In fact, much of supporters’ conversations involve creating opportunities for the physical interaction time in which one can be surrounded by similarly identified others.
Interaction within groups can occur across varying dimensions of time, place, and intensity (Devasagayam & Buff, 2008), and these different modes were observed within AO. For example, AO members regularly engage in asynchronous communication via
discussions on AO Facebook pages and BigSoccer.com message boards. However, it has been suggested that sense of community can be better achieved through synchronous communication among those within a group (McInnerney & Roberts, 2004). When AO members gather in the same place, such as for a party the night before a live game or at a chapter bar for a gamewatch, it creates the opportunity for synchronous communication. The interaction at these events thus is likely to help build relationships among members and deepen members’ overall sense of community with AO. This is beneficial for AO members, but it also benefits the sport property by increasing the frequency and duration of USMNT consumption.
The Effects of Sense of Community and Social Interaction on Consumption
The sense of community and social interaction among members increase consumption of not only AO events, but USMNT games as well. As said by one supporter in describing a hypothetical life without AO, “I’d still be a fan, but I probably wouldn’t be as engaged” (SGM Randy). The USMNT’s national geographic reach and infrequent match schedule mean that interactions with other fans are uncommon. Thus, supporters look forward to interacting with friends made at previous games. One
informant describes how these events provide the opportunity for rekindling connections among members: “the best time for us to get together is the tailgate party, prior to the game…. You start seeing familiar faces at the tailgates” (SGM Lawrence). The AO social spaces created around live games can lead to members attending with greater frequency than they might otherwise. For instance, when asked about the social interaction component of game weekends, an SGM from the west coast stated,
I think it’s very important because if I didn’t have that social interaction and as much fun, I probably wouldn’t go to games that often. I would go less. I go more now because of it, and I travel further, I mean I’ve traveled back to Hartford and Philly. I’m going to Kansas City Monday, and uh, I know I’m going to have a good time when I’m there even though it’s against a small team called Guadalupe you know, it’ll be good.... I would say the social aspect drives me more to go to the games especially when they’re further. (SGM Kenny)
Similarly, when asked what attracted him to AO, a member replied, “the camaraderie, especially people coming from all over the country and meeting up for a couple days to support the US and BBQ” (SGM Matthew).
AO members see added value in the social interaction and how it alters the entire game attending experience. That idea is captured in the following quote about being part of AO versus just being a fan; this informant lived in the New York area, and thus could attend a local USMNT game about once a year, which he had done several games prior to joining AO:
It totally changes everything…. It was one of those things where, if the game was local, you could go to it, you’d have a good time but it was, you know, that’s just all it was. It was like going to a Giants game or going to any other kind of, you know, just regular sports game…. Once we got involved with AO and really got involved with the big community as a whole, suddenly it was not just about, you know, going to the, going, suddenly the tailgates weren’t just about eating cheap food and having some fun before the game. Suddenly it was a huge party, a big event that you, you desperately wanted to go to, to the point where you’d blow hundreds of dollars on tickets and a hotel, just to be there because it was so much fun. It totally changed everything. (SGM Chris)
Fans who do not live in a frequented market like New York may be further removed from the sport. One fan expressed despondence felt regarding the isolation experienced in the time before joining AO:
It…It affected me like, “Why bother?” When I was living in [east Texas], it felt like I was the only person watching the match. It felt like I was the only one watching the 2006 World Cup. At that time in 2006, the Dallas Mavericks were in the NBA finals so it seemed like all the locals there were more in tune to that than the World Cup and it kind it made it a rather lonely situation. (SGM Matthew)
The informant did not see the point in following the USMNT when there were not others with whom to share his social identity as a USMNT supporter. This importance of social consumption is captured by FBM founder Wiersema, who wrote, “The greatest assets that AO (beyond the success of the National Team) has is [sic] its game day events and the atmosphere at chapter bars. The community it has created is a powerful and attractive
[sic] to potential new fans” (Wiersema, 2011). AO co-founder Brunken described a
similar view, as expressed from non-soccer fans who he convinced to travel by bus to nearby games: “they’re telling us it’s like the best time they’ve ever had. And that’s before the game… that’s when they grow to love soccer” (J. Brunken, personal
communication, December 10, 2009). The social atmosphere facilitated by the supporter groups, and the sense of community it engenders, attracts individuals to the games and encourages them to take further part in supporter group activities.
Even some of the soccer fans interviewed felt that attending games would be dull were it not for the social consumption element. Quotes from supporter group members included, “I can’t watch the sport by myself because it gets boring” (FN 20100303), “there’s the fun aspect of it of meeting new people and getting together and having a good time. There’s no real reason to go to the games if it’s not going to be fun to go” (SGM Chris), and along similar lines, “you’re not going to go if you don’t have fun” (SGM Kenny). This sentiment even extends to supporter group leadership, as evidenced in the following statement from one chapter leader on the influence of AO:
All these towns all over that have never been like, you know, soccer towns. You know, they’ve never been to, they’ve never had a group to go to U.S. games with. If they went to U.S. games they’d be by themselves. They wouldn’t know anyone else that was there, they wouldn’t have any group that they could, you know, hang